Tales of the Torture Adm'n: Federal Judge Says a Convicted Terrorist Can Sue Bush Adm'n Lawyer for Role In Torture Memoranda

by Damozel | Saying that he was trying to  balance "a clash between war and the defense of personal freedoms," federal district Judge Jeffrey White, a Bush appointee, refused to dismiss a lawsuit by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla against Bushie John Yoo, now a law professor at UC-Berkeley.  (AP at MSNBC)  While such a lawsuit would be many times less satisfactory than action by the current administration to hold responsible members of the Bush administration accountable, at least it is a step in that direction.  

Judge White wrote:

"Like any other government official, government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct....The issues raised by this case embody that ... tension — between the requirements of war and the defense of the very freedoms that war seeks to protect....This lawsuit poses the question addressed by our founding fathers about how to strike the proper balance of fighting a war against terror, at home and abroad, and fighting a war using tactics of terror."  (AP at MSNBC)

Lawyers for Padilla -- a convert to Islam who grew up in Brooklyn -- say that the decision provides a substantive interpretation of the constitutional rights of all detainees.  (New York Times)

Padilla and his mother are seeking a declaratory judgment that his constitutional rights were violated plus $1 in damages.   (New York Times)

Mr. Padilla was held as an “enemy combatant” in solitary confinement for more than three years in the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Mr. Padilla, who was convicted of supporting terrorism and other crimes, demands that Mr. Yoo be held accountable for actions that Mr. Padilla claims led to his being tortured.

During the time Mr. Padilla was held in the brig, according to his filings in the case, he “suffered gross physical and psychological abuse at the hands of federal officials as part off a systematic program of abusive interrogation intended to break down Mr. Padilla’s humanity and his will to live.”  (New York Times)

White concluded that Yoo was exceeding the role of an attorney when drafting the torture policy that defined torture as treatment causing "pain levels equivalent to "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death." (MSNBC)

The DoJ's lawyers argued that courts can't scrutinize decisions made by the administration during wartime and that to entertain Padilla's allegations would damage foreign relations and national security. (more at MSNBC)

Memeorandum has more blogger commmentary.

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